Sunday, March 20, 2011

I started this endeavor at 9 pm on a Friday night. They require two rises and that definitely takes some time, but it was one of those recipes that came out looking exactly like the picture. And even though it was nearly 1 am by the time they came out of the oven, I couldn't resist slathering one with butter and gobbling it up. In fact, that is how I liked these buns best - fresh from the oven and dripping with butter. I actually think they are too good to use for burgers.
I believe that a bad bun can definitely detract from a good burger experience. We never buy those supermarket buns that have the consistency of a wad of kleenex. Our favorite packaged hamburger bun is actually a good ol' Thomas' English Muffin (a trick we learned a few years ago on an episode of Barefoot Contessa). However, I'm not sure the difference between a good bun and a great bun is detectable when eating a burger...the patty plus fixins always overwhelms the bread. The same happened when I filled the buns with egg salad.

Homemade buns certainly didn't hurt though, and the burgers were delicious! Grilled turkey burgers with smoky paprika aoili, cheddar, and grilled red peppers and onions...oh yeah. I mean, look at this:
I would definitely make these buns again - just maybe not for burgers. The recipe made eight buns and they were huge - I would definitely divide the dough into ten buns the next time. However, what I'd really like to do is make them into slider sized buns and serve mini crabcake sandwiches on them!Light Brioche Burger Buns recipe on Smitten Kitchen.